PRESS RELEASE from Kids Voting USA

Kids Voting USA Releases Final 2008 Election Results

Washington, DC—November 14, 2008. Kids Voting USA, a national organization that prepares young Americans to be engaged and active citizens, today announced final results for the 2008 presidential election, Congressional elections, and governorships.

A total of 1, 862,143 students participated in the 2008 election project. This is a 20% increase over student participation in the 2004 presidential election. Four states—Florida, North Carolina, Arizona, and Missouri—each had over 250,000 students who voted.

Student results echoed those of adults with Illinois Senator Barack Obama receiving 1,173,217, or 63% of the votes cast, to Arizona Senator John McCain’s 604,754 votes. Independent and third party candidates were led by Robert Barr with 19,180 votes and Ralph Nader with 17,538.

Participants in states with hotly contested races requiring recounts also had close races but did not always reflect early totals for votes cast by adults. In Minnesota Democrat challenger Al Franken led Republican Senator Norm Coleman 27,461 to 26,780. In Alaska, Democrat challenger Mark Begich led Republican Senator Ted Stevens by a count of 2,380 to 2,035.

The 2008 election marks the fifth presidential election since the founding of Kids Voting USA in 1988 and the organization’s national launch in 1992. Students also participate in mid-term elections for Congress and statewide offices as well as local races.

Kids Voting USA’s network of Affiliates in 25 states work closely with schools and election officials to deliver a democracy-based curriculum for students from kindergarten through high school and to conduct the Kids Voting election. Students cast ballots at regular polling places, usually accompanied by a parent or adult, or through on-line voting at their school. High school students who are 18 are encouraged to participate by registering and casting a regular ballot, volunteering at the polls or mentoring younger students.

Kids Voting USA (www.kidsvotingusa.org) operates through a national network of community-based Affiliates that partner with schools and election officials to offer more than 4.5 million K-12 students a wide range of opportunities for civic learning. The combination of classroom instruction, family dialogue and an authentic voting experience helps achieve KVUSA’s mission of achieving long-term change in voting behavior by preparing young people to be educated, engaged voters.

State results are available at

www.kidsvotingusa.org.

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